Could someone clear up if I could re-create this effect with that lense? http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00P/00PrqY-50059584.jpg
Probably nowhere near as contrasting as that image as that is major clarity on the person and ridiculous blur on the background, but that general idea.
I've been playing with some raw images from my wedding recent in Adobe Light Room and you can create some nice Bokeh effects in that by turning the clarity and sharpness of the background down but as I understand the best way is to capture it right in the first place and do minimal if any work in software afterwards, and not capture images that require a lot of work.
Not sure what lens you mean, but with the 35mm prime foothead's suggesting, yes - with the kit lens, no. It's the larger aperture of the prime (somewhat confusingly given by a lower number) that can give you that affect.
I personally have the D3200 with kit lens and planning to grab a prime (probably the 35mm) at some point soon too. The aperture on the kit lens goes down a fair way, enough to get a blurred background, but nothing near totally throwing it out of focus beyond recognition.
It's true the D3200 does have many more megapixels than it's older sibling, but that wasn't really the reason I went for it, you'd really need a better lens and be producing very big prints to notice the difference in that regard. It's also got a much better screen, slightly faster continuous burst, and has the option of an external mic input for recording video - and that last feature was actually the one that most swayed me, however simple it might seem! The others are all nice touches too however.
I'd also recommend shooting fully manually at least for a while to learn what settings to use best, you'll really get the most out of the camera this way rather than sticking it in P mode or fully auto. For a while I often took 2 shots, one in manual using my settings and one on auto. The camera often got a better shot, but I could then look at what settings it used and therefore *why* that meant it was better, then seek to recreate that shot in manual mode. Before long you should be beating auto mode hands down
One other general point, don't be afraid to bump up the ISO a bit when you need to - avoid the few at the very high end of the range as they'll be noisy as hell, but going up to (say) 800 on modern digital cameras gives perfectly decent noise free results, and is much better than a slightly less noisy but very blurry photo that came from opening the shutter for too long!
In terms of tripods, I grabbed the Slik Sprint Pro II GM for a steal (£35, haven't seen it anywhere near that low since) and it's been worth every penny - a great little tripod.
Enjoy